Patrick Willmore
Dr Patrick Lever Willmore FRSE (1921–1994) was a 20th-century British seismologist remembered as inventor of the Willmore seismometer.[1] In authorship he is P. L. Willmore.
He was Director of the Institute of Geological Science.[2]
Life
[edit]Patrick Willmore was a pupil at Worthing High School for Boys.[3] In 1939, he took up a scholarship to read for a BA in Natural Sciences at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1946 to 1952 he was a Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge specialising in seismic activity. In 1952 he was appointed government Seismologist at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa in Canada.[4]
In 1952 he was commissioned to investigate volcanic activity on the island of St Vincent in the Caribbean and concluded that the source of volcanic activity could not be located during or after the event and concluded that sensitive areas required continual monitoring by a seismometer.[5]
He returned to Cambridge University in 1961/62 then became Senior Seismologist at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. He was Director of the International Seismological Summary (ISS) from 1960 to 1963. In 1964, he became the first director of the International Seismological Centre, in Edinburgh, a role he held until 1970.[6]
Although elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh he resigned in 1980.[7]
Dr Geoffrey Robson studied under him.
Publications
[edit]- Manual of Seismological Observatory Practice (1960)
- Seismology
References
[edit]- ^ "Willmore seismometer, MkII type SG450, no 229456, | Science Museum Group Collection".
- ^ Willmore, P. L. (1978). "Seismology". Physics and Contemporary Needs. pp. 375–415. doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-3345-6_10. ISBN 978-1-4684-3347-0.
- ^ "First Old Azurian at St John's College Cambridge". old-azurians.
- ^ "Patrick L. Willmore (1921-1994) - Musée de Sismologie et collections de Géophysique - Université de Strasbourg". musee-sismologie.unistra.fr.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Early History". www.isc.ac.uk.
- ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
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